


take a dip in my daydreams

by oyabun



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Kai-centric, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, no beta we die like zane, one-sided Lloyd/Kai, oppositeshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27428497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oyabun/pseuds/oyabun
Summary: Everyday featuring Kai Smith and his dynamic with the ninjas until he finally admits that he has a crush on Zane.Buildup to opposite shipping! [ Kai/Zane ]
Relationships: Kai & Nya (Ninjago), Kai & Zane (Ninjago), Kai/Zane (Ninjago), Lloyd Garmadon & Kai
Comments: 13
Kudos: 72





	1. Kai used to be responsible

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I haven't posted anything for a year and I come back... with a Ninjago fic huh... 
> 
> This is very self-indulgent Kai-centric hehe ;_; I'm hoping to drop some angst here and there between the fluff. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Did you know Kai used to be the responsible one.” Nya says in passing one day as she swept the floor of the monastery, Jay and Cole beside her mopping and polishing in her wake. 

“Kai? As in, your brother… Kai?” Jay slows down his mopping to look at Nya who didn’t seem phased by the questionable way he responded. 

“Yup.” Nya made a popping sound with her ‘p’. “He used to be all annoying,” 

“What do you mean used to? He still is.” Jay stops mopping at this point to look at Nya in disbelief while Cole chuckles at his side of the room. 

“Telling me to eat my veggies, telling me not to run or I’ll fall,” she had her back turned to Jay as she swept. She could feel Jay’s eyes on her as she spoke, slowly followed by Cole as he slowed down the polishing to look. 

“He was pretty good at it. He’d hold my hand when we crossed streets.” Nya spoke with some fondness in her voice before she let out a small laugh. “He’d even hold my hand when we cross bicycle paths.”

“Then…” Jay trailed off and looked at the floor. “Why isn’t he like that  _ now _ ?” 

There was a moment of silence that filled the air, as if Nya was reminiscing those times to herself while Cole and Jay waited for her to start telling them stories of this so-called ‘responsible version of Kai’ they couldn’t believe had existed. 

“I think at some point, I started to want to become the responsible one.” Nya said before she faced Jay and Cole with a sad smile on her face. 

“I started overtaking all his responsibilities by being better at making the meals, organising the house, looking after the both of us so he could just take a break.” She thought about when they were younger, and the first time she burnt dinner, but did her best to hide it from Kai, so he wouldn’t worry and doubt her ability to be reliable. 

“I kinda hated the fact he had to grow up so fast for the both of us.” Cole and Jay exchanged a look of pity before looking back at Nya. 

“I’m glad he can just be himself, y’know?”

“Nya,” Jay started, pity detected in his voice. Nya furrowed her brows in slight annoyance at the look Cole and Jay both gave her.

“I didn’t tell you this just to have a pity party, alright? I - “ Nya took a step forward but got cut off by the double doors bursting open and Kai running in along with Zane following behind him.

Cole frowned and Jay seemed to be taken aback by the sudden appearance of Kai, but Nya was unfazed, still partially glaring at her two teammates. Kai smelled a lot like smoke and small parts of his gi appearing singed, most likely from his aggressive fighting style when his elemental powers were involved. 

“We’re back! Did you miss us?” Kai smiled brightly before he looked between Jay, Cole and his sister. The look on his sisters face made his smile drop slightly before he looked at Jay and Cole, who looked at him with what seemed like sympathy, but he didn’t know why. 

“Did something happen?” his smile dropped as he raised a brow and put his hands on his hips. Zane walked behind him and looked between the three ninjas as well.

“There is a detection of tension in the room.” Zane spoke before tilting his head slightly. “Did we walk in at a bad time?”

“Not at all.” Nya says with a straight face before she gives the two ninjas a half smile. “Welcome back.” 

Kai exchanged a look of disbelief with Zane, who stared back at him before they both turned to look at their friends. 

“Come on, we know you better than  _ that _ . What’s going on?” Kai walked over to Jay and slung his arm around his friends shoulder. 

“Did Nya say no or something?” Kai whispered behind his hand at Jay, looking smug before Jay shoved him away. 

“No!” Jay turned a light shade of pink and Kai smirked, taking it as a victory. “We were talking about you, idiot.”

“Oh?” Kai’s eyes widened before he looked at Nya. “You didn’t tell them about-“ 

“No, Kai, I didn’t tell them about  _ that _ .” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. 

Kai in turn also rolled his eyes. “Then what are you so worked up about.” 

“Nya told us you were once…” Cole started and squinted at him. “ _ responsible _ .” 

“Yea dude, like, adult level responsible.” Jay squinted at Kai as well.

“Oh.” Kai put a hand on his hip and hummed. “Yea, I guess. That was a long time ago though. Everyone knows Nya is  _ way _ more reliable than I could ever be.”

“Of course. I had to learn to be responsible because your sense of ‘responsibility’ came with a side effect of being majorly annoying.” Nya smirked at him and Kai stuck out his tongue. 

Zane watched as his teammates started making the situation more relaxed as they joked around and teased one another. In times like this he switched to observation mode, he realised that his eyes prefered wandering to Kai when not actively looking at his friends expressions and body movements. He assumes it’s purely because Kai was attractive, which made him easy on the eyes. 

“Go inside and shower, you smell like a barbecue.” Zane came back to his senses after he realised he was lost in thought. Cole had a hand on Kai’s shoulder. Zane watched as the elder gave his shoulder a small squeeze, perhaps offering comfort. 

“Yea, except you were the meat.” Jay laughed at his own joke while Cole gave the other a fond smile. 

“Whatever. Come on Zane, let’s ditch these guys.” Kai walked back to Zane to tug the nindoroid along with him. 

“You do smell burnt though.” Zane says loud enough for the rest of the team to hear and Jay bursts into laughter. 

Kai pouted at Zane before turning away from him. 

Nya watched the two ninjas enter the dojo with her hand on her hip, fondly smiling at her brothers retreating back. 

‘I’m glad he’s having fun.’ 


	2. Kai likes being carried

Thanks to Zane’s keen observation skills, he has noticed some things about Kai. Yes, Zane has always noticed his boyish charm that added to his attractiveness, but he has also noticed that Kai generally liked being _not_ on the ground. 

He could say that Kai liked being airborne but there was no way for him to truly prove that. Other than the times Kai had ridden dragons, flung himself off buildings without a second thought, and hung himself half off the Destiny’s Bounty while it was in the air, he could never truly _confirm_. 

Zane has once or twice caught Kai laughing loudly, his voice filled with glee as he was used as Cole’s training weight along with Nya or Jay. Nya and Jay would take turns depending on their availability, but Kai would always offer himself to be carried or seated on top of Cole’s weights as he was dangerously lifted off the ground. 

‘Reassessing the situation,’ Zane thought to himself as he watched Kai laugh, balancing himself on Cole’s weights. ‘Kai is one of the lighter members of the team. I’m not sure if his weight has any correlation to him being frequently off the ground, but it could be a factor.’ The ice ninja thought to himself. 

Apparently, Nya could also lift Kai off the floor. 

“May I enquire as to why you lift Kai off his feet when you both engage in an embrace?” 

“He’s light.” Nya said as she rolled her head and her shoulder, working the knot that formed there. She stood in front of her punching bag dressed down in her gunmetal grey sports bra and matching track pants showing off her defined abs. “He also really likes it. I can’t tell you how, but I know that he does.”

Zane furrowed his eyebrows at her vague response and she smiled as she shrugged. 

“Just trust me.” 

The ice ninja thought about it. Surely, Nya, as his sister who spent almost her entire lifetime with Kai would be able to recognise subtle hints at his love for being off the ground that Zane could not detect. 

He decided he will test the theory someday, but he was not expecting ‘someday’ to be so soon. 

After a long mission that Jay and Zane went on together, he had come back at the break of dawn with the lightning ninja in tow, exhausted from their supposedly three day return sped into a day’s trip back. 

“You’re back!” Zane’s blue eyes met amber ones as he pushed the double doors open. As if doing a comedic double take, Zane shook his head and blinked. Kai was holding the broom with both hands, smiling at him as the sky behind him broke out in pinks and yellows as the sun steadily rose. 

Kai dropped his broom before running over to Zane at full speed and tackling his friend in a hug. 

Zane didn’t jerk back from the force, but made a split second decision to wrap an arm around the fire ninja’s thighs, effectively hoisting him up and off the ground during their embrace. He certainly wasn’t prepared for Kai’s automatic response, taking it as an invitation to wrap his legs around Zane’s hips, which made Zane’s face overheat from the intimacy. 

He could hear Jay’s panting and grumbling as he climbed up the rest of the stairs to the monastery on his own, but his heightened senses decided to focus on how Kai’s face was buried into the crook between his neck and shoulder.

The ice ninja could smell Nya’s conditioner on the shorter males hair. He couldn’t help but smile when he felt Kai bury his face deeper into the hug. 

“Hello, Kai. We are both back.” Zane says, a small smile on his face. He couldn’t see Kai’s expression, but he knew he had his eyes closed and could feel his smile on his skin. 

“The mission was a success.” Kai lifts his head and Zane realised that holding Kai this close to him during an embrace meant their faces would also be close in contact. 

With the bare amount of light from the sunrise, he could see a light flush on Kai’s face as he stared back at Zane, both of them not saying a word to each other. 

Kai slowly felt his ears burn from the embarrassment of being that close to Zane. He knew he held feelings for the nindroid, but at this moment he was praying Zane didn’t mention it if he noticed his heart rate had picked up significantly.

“Finally!” Jay had one hand on his thigh and another supporting himself against the large double doors. He was bent over, panting harshly before he looked up at Zane and Kai. 

“Welcome back, bro.” Zane had bent to place Kai back on his feet and walked over to Jay to help him back into the monastery. Kai watched as Zane practically carried Jay before he picked up the broom he discarded on the floor and started to sweep. 

Kai swept the floor for a bit before deciding he should go back to sleep instead of pretending to care about the cleanliness of the front lawn, since he had already greeted Zane (and Jay) after their mission back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not me watching Cole lift Nya and Jay thinking you know what, Kai would love that hehe
> 
> Drop me a comment!


	3. Kai acts like a brat

All the ninjas can agree that they practically raised Lloyd together, but on occasions like this when the green ninja let his emotions get the best of him during missions and did reckless actions, it was obvious who  _ Lloyd’s  _ favourite was. 

The green ninja must have watched Kai way more than the rest of them. Their careless yet easy-going attitudes during high tension situations are almost similar. Kai thought it was hilarious whenever Lloyd would be lost in thought and slam into the occasional pole. 

Not like he was much better. 

The reality of it was that at the end of the day Lloyd had the ability to overcome his emotions and make mature decisions.

Lloyd himself would say he was more mature than his self-proclaimed ‘older brother’. He felt equal if not older than Kai on occasion. 

For example, today, during training when Lloyd successfully dodged Cole’s attack during training, and was kicked in his side by an oncoming Kai that left his match with Zane midway to disrupt Lloyd. 

“Surprise attack!” Lloyd heard Kai shout when he landed onto the ground with a thud. He had his eyes clenched from the impact and laid on the ground as he heard Nya’s voice follow. 

“I keep telling you, Kai, it’s not a surprise if you yell it out.” 

“Tell that to Lloyd.” he blinked, shielding his eyes from the bright sky, but he saw Cole and Zane in his field of vision looking down at him with concern. 

“Lloyd, are you alright?” Zane asked as Cole offered his hand and helped him up on his feet. Lloyd frowned, feeling his side throb from the truly unexpected attack from Kai. 

“I’ll probably have bruises tomorrow, but I’m fine.” 

“You’re just being a baby.” he had a spring in his step as he made his way over to Lloyd and pouted. “Did I hurt you? Would a kiss make it better?” Kai teased before flashing a grin at him. 

Lloyd felt himself blush from the offer, but he smothered the oncoming smile by biting the inside of his cheek. “You know what Kai, you are such a  _ brat _ .” 

Kai’s sly smile dropped immediately, before he slowly furrowed his brows and puffed a cheek. The other two ninjas looked shocked by Lloyd’s response. 

“That’s not how you speak to your elders, bro.” 

Lloyd felt like he wanted to tease Kai a little. 

“My elders should earn my respect, shouldn’t they? And right now,” Lloyd approached Kai and pinched his cheek imitating how children would be punished. 

“you’re acting like a  _ brat _ . So I will treat you like one.”

Kai was speechless. Zane raised a brow in question and Cole coughed behind his hand hiding his smile. In the distance Jay burst out laughing as he overheard the conversation, but it quickly changed to a yelp of surprise when Nya’s swift kick swept him off his feet. 

Lloyd watched Kai, the smirk on his face showing as the red ninja jerked out of his hold, face flushed from embarrassment. He felt so powerful whenever he could turn Kai speechless, which was often since the fire master always had something to say. 

-

“Rude, how could he pinch my cheek and call me a brat! Doesn’t he know I practically raised him with my blood, sweat and tears?” Cole rolled his eyes as he did a push up, sweat dripping onto the floor below him. Kai had walked in the earth master’s room earlier to complain about Lloyd, but was now laying on his back as he did pushups. 

“What did the others say about it?” Cole says as he lifted himself (plus the extra weight of Kai) off the ground before he brought himself back down. Kai stared at the ceiling. 

“Well...”

\- 

“Kai, you **are** a brat though.” Nya said as she said as she ducked Zane’s punch. The ice master smiled and threw another punch that the water master avoided. 

“Hey!” Kai shouts as he leans against the wall where he sat cross legged on the floor. “Don’t be mean.” 

“Sorry, bro, it’s not like I hate you for being a brat or anything.” Nya dodged to Zane’s left before she faked a left and hooked with a right, effectively hitting Zane. When he fell back, she rubbed her knuckles for basically whacking solid metal. 

“It’s just in your genes.” 

“Nya, I don’t know if you realise, but we share the exact same genes.” 

Zane picked himself off the floor and readied a stance, waiting for Nya to come at him. “The definition of a brat is a child,” he dodges Nya’s hit better this time. 

“Typically one that is badly behaved,” he ducks under her punch and goes for her middle, effectively catching her off guard. Nya who couldn’t react in time got pinned to the ground. 

“So yes Kai, you are accurately a ‘brat’.” Zane gets off Nya, who stared at the ceiling in shock, her brain still processing the tackle. He looks over at Kai, who seemed to be sulking more than when he first arrived. 

“Your public image is one of a ‘bad boy’, am I correct? Is this not what you were aiming for?” Zane offers his hand to Nya and she gladly takes his hand. He pulls her up in one effective tug before she pats him on the shoulder. 

They both turn to face Kai, the tips of his ears red and his cheek puffed unsure if it was annoyance or jealousy. 

“I’m not a brat!” Kai says before he storms out of the room, probably to find another poor ninja to annoy into saying he wasn’t one. Well, he was very determined, Zane could give him that. 

A minute of silence as Nya got back into her fighting stance, followed by Zane. 

“He’s kinda cute.” Nya says out of nowhere as she gets low to kick Zane, but he jumps back before she could disarm him. 

“Yes,” Zane smiles fondly. “He also fits that description.”

-

Cole is fully laughing now. He stopped doing his pushups to lay on the floor, smacking the floorboards with his hand. 

Kai got off his back and squatted beside him. “I thought you of all people would be nice to me but now you’re also being mean.” 

“I’m sorry,” Cole sat up, the laughter bringing tears to his eyes. Kai raised a brow at his friend, who wiped the tears away from his eyes.

“You’re not a brat, Kai.” Cole says as he ruffles Kai’s fluffy hair fondly. 

“Maybe, just, childlike. But we like you that way.” Cole thinks about Nya briefly before his hand gets batted away from messing up the red ninja's hair. 

“Having fun there?” Lloyd slides Cole’s door open and walks in. Kai frowns and glares at the green ninja, and Lloyd had to suppress his growing smirk. 

“He’s upset you called him a brat.” “Hey! No I’m not!” 

“Ugh,” Kai stood up in a hurry and passed Lloyd at the door. “Whatever. When you become boring and old you’d be looking at me with so much jealousy  _ you’d _ want to be the brat.” Kai said in a hurry and stuck out his tongue before he quickly retreated. 

Cole and Lloyd stared at his retreating back in confusion. 

“That did… not make any sense.” Cole said to himself. He looked at Lloyd, who had an unusually fond expression on his face. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe as he watched Kai’s retreating form disappear around the corner. 

“Sometimes stupid and cute are enough.” 

Cole thought he heard wrongly and shook his head. 

“Did you just call Kai…  _ cute _ ?” Cole swears on his _life_ he heard Lloyd wrongly, but the blonde turned to give Cole a half glare from the door. 

“I also called him stupid.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing the one-sided ship Lloyd/Kai huehue
> 
> The idea of Kai being a brat is so cute to me... yes Kai be all naughty and childlike I'd give you the world if you asked of me


	4. Kai's love language is physical touch

The rest of the ninjas found it unusual at first how _touchy_ Kai was. Needless to say in the beginning it was awkward how close in proximity he wanted to be with everyone. A touch here, a nudge there, an occasional grab now and then, but they didn’t understand _why_ until Nya had come along and set things straight.

“It’s just how he shows his love.” Nya shrugged when asked about it. “Y’know like, physical touch is his love language.” 

They started noticing how Kai would throw himself into dangerous situations if there was a sliver of chance that they would be saved, or how Kai would give them a reassuring touch accompanied by a gentle squeeze against their forearm or wrist when they were hurt in battle. 

Recently Kai had been showing his affection more frequently. Jay had received his fair share of Kai’s hugs, nudges here and there and arm grabs when they were talking to show he was paying attention, but never the type that he sees Zane receive.

Zane is currently on the couch during his break reading a book, holding it firmly in one hand while the other would be threading through Kai’s hair, who was cuddled into his side sleeping soundly. Kai had his arms crossed keeping them to his person, but his body leaned into Zane’s side, his cheek pressed against Zane’s shoulder as he slept. 

The fire master looked at peace in his sleep despite the small space he stuffed himself in to sleep against Zane. The nindroid rubbed Kai’s neck gently, stroking it with his knuckles before threading through his hair gently, as if he were petting a cat. 

Jay peeked through the slightly ajar door at the two ninjas and squinted suspiciously at the two figures. Kai unconsciously pushed his face closer into the crook of Zane’s neck to block out the light and continued to sleep. Zane paused momentarily to look at Kai when he shifted, before he resumed petting his hair softly and reading. 

Jay raised a brow at the sight. He knew that Kai was comfortable with being touchy, he just didn’t know the extent of his physical affection. He didn’t even know that Kai took naps with Zane till today. It briefly crossed his mind whether it could be the first time they’ve taken a nap together, but it couldn’t be. They looked too comfortable for this to be the first time. 

‘I should ask Nya.’ Jay thinks to himself, lost in thought that he didn’t hear the earth master approach him. 

“What are you looking at?” Cole asked and Jay quickly righted himself and made loud shushing noises. Cole held his hands up as Jay calmed down. 

“Look at them.” Jay pointed at the slightly ajar door. Cole took a peek and made a fond noise at the two ninjas together. 

“No, not ‘aww’.” Jay put his hands on his hips. “Isn’t it weird that they do that?” 

Cole frowned as he stood up straight, looking at Jay dead in the eye. He felt the tension in the air as the silence filled the hallway. Jay’s hands fell from his hips at the intimidating look Cole gave him.

“Is that toxic masculinity I’m hearing from you Jay?” Cole said slowly, glaring at him. 

“What?” Jay asked, genuinely confused. “No! I did _not_ mean to be toxic, I just meant I’ve literally never seen them do that.” he sees Cole relax after his explanation before he decides to peek at the two of them again. 

“There’s a perfectly logical reason for this.” Cole nodded as he stroked his chin. Jay waits for Cole to think of his answer. While he waits, he decides to take another look at the two ninjas, still in their previous position, completely undisturbed by the world around them. 

He stares for a while, wondering about 'what if Kai were to come up to cuddle him and take a nap during their afternoons off'.

Nah, he probably wouldn’t be able to sit still enough to let Kai just _sleep_. He glanced over at Cole, who was looking at the floor thinking of his response. Cole probably wouldn’t be able to let Kai take a peaceful afternoon nap either, knowing the guy would probably leave midway to busy himself by training or playing video games. 

He watches Zane’s hand softly pet Kai’s hair before travelling lower to stroke his neck gently, his hand then travelling lower to settle onto Kai’s waist keeping the fire ninja close to him. Jay shakes his head. He definitely would not be suitable to care for Kai as well as Zane does during a nap time. 

“Kai probably runs hot, so Zane can cool him during nap time?” Jay gave him a deadpan expression and the other shrugged. 

“That’s what you thought of after all this time?” Jay raises a brow and Cole nods enthusiastically. Jay sighs and turns back to them. 

“I know Nya says that Kai is just touchy but I have never seen him do this with anyone else.”

“Does it matter though?” Cole asks tilting his head slightly, which snaps Jay out of his thoughts. The earth master is right, does it _really_ matter? 

“He probably just likes Zane.”

“Yea, but we all like Zane.”

“No, I meant he _likes_ Zane.” Jay’s mouth formed a little ‘o’ before it spread into a devious grin. 

“Well, my friend,” Jay shouldn’t suppress the devious grin that appeared on his face. He approached Cole and slung an arm around his friends shoulders. “If that’s the case, shouldn’t we be milking it as much as we can right now?” 

“What… do you mean.” Cole looked visibly uncomfortable at Jay’s scheming face. 

“I mean we should take pictures and use it as _blackmail_. It’s not everyday I hear Kai has a crush on someone y’know.” Jay holds the earth master by his shoulders and looks him in the eyes. Cole looked worried for a brief moment, before looking at them and looking back at Jay with a similar smirk on his face. 

“Get the camera.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When the two run off to get a camera, Zane sweats bcs he heard the whole conversation they've been having just outside. 
> 
> Season 10... this is s10's fault. They really said "We need to make sure Kai touches everyone and EVERYTHING this season"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
